The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Baptists, Presbyterians, Covenant Theology, & Christian Nationalism

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00:00:41.800 This morning, we continue with our sermon series

00:00:44.080 through the book of Joshua.

00:00:45.300 Our text for today is Joshua chapter five,

00:00:48.000 verses one through 12.

00:00:49.900 Again, that's Joshua chapter five, verses one through 12.

00:00:53.680 Would you join me now in standing

00:00:55.140 for the reading of God's word?

00:00:56.400 I'll read our text.

00:00:58.220 In its entirety, when I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:01:02.120 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.

00:01:07.320 One final time, our text for today is Joshua chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.

00:01:12.880 The Bible says this,

00:01:15.080 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan to the west,

00:01:20.400 and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea,

00:01:24.140 heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they

00:01:29.880 had crossed over, their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the

00:01:37.180 people of Israel. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons

00:01:44.960 of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at

00:01:52.580 Gibeath-Heraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people

00:02:00.320 who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had

00:02:07.160 come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who

00:02:15.480 were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

00:02:22.580 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war, who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.

00:02:35.320 The Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

00:02:46.040 so it was their children whom he raised up in their place that Joshua circumcised for they

00:02:53.700 were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way when the circumcising

00:03:00.220 of the whole nation was finished they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed

00:03:06.460 and the Lord said to Joshua today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you and so the

00:03:14.360 name of that place is Gilgal to this day. While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal,

00:03:21.500 they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

00:03:28.120 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land,

00:03:34.400 unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of

00:03:41.100 the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of

00:03:47.480 the land of Canaan that year. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go

00:03:55.200 ahead and dive in. I've separated or bifurcated our text today into two primary portions, verses

00:04:02.960 one through nine, which deals with Israel being circumcised a second time, a second time in the

00:04:11.000 symbolic sense, not the literal sense. The individuals who are being circumcised were

00:04:17.820 actually not circumcised prior to this moment. And so they're being circumcised initially for

00:04:24.520 the first time. But this is looking at Israel in a covenantal corporate sense, a second circumcision

00:04:31.600 of Israel. That's verses 1 through 9 of our text, dealing with circumcision. But then, looking at

00:04:38.240 verses 10 through 12 of our text, we have the Passover. And between these two practices,

00:04:46.160 under the Old Covenant, with the nation-state of Israel, both circumcision and the Passover

00:04:51.800 function as covenantal signs for God's covenantal people. And so what we have is a new generation

00:04:59.640 of Israelites, now having crossed the Jordan River, now entering into the promised land of Canaan,

00:05:07.520 a good land that flows with milk and honey, the first thing that takes place is a covenant

00:05:13.320 renewal ceremony. And we see Israel being circumcised, and we see them observing the

00:05:20.680 Passover. It is a renewing of the covenant between Yahweh and his people, as they are now beginning

00:05:28.380 a new chapter in fulfillment of all God's promises made first to Abraham and also through

00:05:35.380 his servant Moses, that Israel would become a great people and that God would provide

00:05:41.860 for them a good land and that they would inhabit the land and that God would drive out all

00:05:48.260 their enemies.

00:05:49.400 A covenantal renewal ceremony, circumcision and the Passover are the first things that

00:05:56.120 take place in the new land of Canaan given to Israel. Let's begin with verses one through nine

00:06:02.540 dealing with circumcision. Simply that it might be fresh in our minds, I want us to read once more

00:06:10.940 verses one and two of our text, which says, as soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were

00:06:17.940 beyond the Jordan to the west and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that

00:06:24.340 the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed

00:06:30.080 over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of

00:06:37.320 Israel. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel

00:06:45.660 a second time. In your notes, I've written the following. Here is the fright which the Canaanites

00:06:52.280 were put into by their miraculously passing over Jordan. The news of Israel miraculously crossing

00:06:59.680 the Jordan, and likely also the news of Israel's miraculous victory over Jericho, was quickly

00:07:06.740 spread as an alarm to all the kings and kingdoms of Canaan. God impressed these fears upon the

00:07:14.500 Canaanites in fulfillment of his promises. Where do we find those promises? In multiple instances,

00:07:22.280 but for the sake of time, I'll provide two. Exodus chapter 23 verse 27 says this,

00:07:29.480 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you

00:07:36.900 shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. A second example of this

00:07:44.960 promise being provided by God to the people of Israel is Psalm chapter 53 verse 5.

00:07:52.280 There they are in great terror where there is no terror for God scatters the bones of him

00:07:59.620 who encamps against you. You put them to shame for God has rejected them. God promised his people

00:08:08.500 Israel even before they entered into the land of Canaan that he would strike terror into the hearts

00:08:16.400 of all those who stood against Israel,

00:08:19.720 that their hearts would indeed melt like wax,

00:08:23.720 that there would be no spirit left in them,

00:08:27.220 that they would be stricken by terror.

00:08:30.800 And this is precisely the promise that God fulfills,

00:08:34.300 that when Israel crosses over the Jordan River,

00:08:37.940 as the waters are heaped up in a pile miraculously

00:08:41.500 by the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord

00:08:44.400 held by the Levitical priesthood in the midst of the Jordan,

00:08:49.000 God's people cross over on dry land

00:08:52.260 and the news of this miraculous event

00:08:55.200 quickly spreads to all the different tribes of the Canaanites.

00:09:00.480 And we see in the text, the Amorites.

00:09:03.720 Likely with the news of their miraculous crossing of the Jordan River

00:09:08.200 is also the news of their miraculous victory over the city of Jericho.

00:09:14.400 a juggernaut within the Canaanite tribes, that the walls miraculously fell on the seventh day

00:09:22.420 and that God gave to his people a very great victory. And it is at this moment that God

00:09:30.640 commands Israel to be circumcised. In your notes, I've written this. God ordered Joshua to

00:09:38.540 circumcise Israel at a time when it might be done with safety, even in an enemy's country,

00:09:46.720 due to their hearts being melted with fear. Joshua could have easily been thought of as

00:09:52.880 unwise for this particular command. According to natural reason, it was foolish to undergo

00:09:59.520 circumcision at this time. However, when God gives a command, we must not consult with flesh

00:10:07.240 and blood. According to human reason, it would have made much more sense for Israel to be

00:10:14.280 circumcised before crossing the Jordan. For that matter, they had 38 years, 40 in total,

00:10:23.960 but 38 years for this new generation of Israelites to be circumcised in the wilderness

00:10:31.540 as they were on the way to the promised land.

00:10:35.680 There were ample opportunities, in other words,

00:10:38.720 for Israel to be circumcised

00:10:41.420 when they were not surrounded by a threat,

00:10:46.060 when they were not surrounded by their enemies.

00:10:49.960 To be circumcised at this time defies human reason.

00:10:54.940 Because of the natural healing process,

00:10:58.260 it made all the fighting men in Israel temporarily, albeit, but temporarily vulnerable,

00:11:06.940 not able to fight. For some of you, if you're familiar with your Old Testament narratives,

00:11:13.560 you may be familiar of a particular time when a particular people were circumcised

00:11:20.460 and they were defeated during that vulnerable moment of healing.

00:11:25.860 The sons of Jacob tricked a neighboring tribe

00:11:31.000 into joining into covenant with Israel, this family,

00:11:37.420 by undergoing circumcision.

00:11:39.880 And then to avenge their sister,

00:11:42.760 they used that moment after this neighboring tribe

00:11:46.720 had just been circumcised to go and slaughter them

00:11:50.500 before they were able to be healed

00:11:52.520 and therefore before they were able to fight successfully.

00:11:58.520 So we have a biblical example

00:12:00.960 where circumcision clearly is not a practical advantage in battle.

00:12:08.620 At least not for the first few days.

00:12:11.760 It takes a little bit of time.

00:12:14.000 So again, in a practical sense,

00:12:16.580 you would think, why would you enter into enemy territory and then make yourselves vulnerable?

00:12:25.060 Why not deal with that before? Or why not deal with that after? After you've defeated not only

00:12:31.940 Jericho, but all the other surrounding enemy camps? Or why not deal with it for 38 years?

00:12:39.080 It's not as though you didn't have time. There were 38 years, the last 38 years of the 40,

00:12:46.580 while wandering in the wilderness, that circumcision was neglected.

00:12:52.620 Now on that point, it's a difficult reality of the Old Testament narrative to reconcile.

00:13:01.880 Because we know that God was very particular through Abraham

00:13:07.240 that every Hebrew male should be circumcised on the eighth day.

00:13:13.500 And we know that God was also particular through Moses

00:13:16.460 during the time of Israel held in bondage in Egypt

00:13:21.720 and for the first two years as they were led out of Egypt,

00:13:26.160 there was also, again, this renewal covenant ceremony,

00:13:30.980 circumcision and Passover.

00:13:33.960 God was very insistent in particular that his people

00:13:37.720 should bear the covenant signs of their covenant God

00:13:42.180 and his covenant promises.

00:13:45.540 And then, all of a sudden, we have an ellipsis.

00:13:49.680 We have this parenthetical pause of 38 years,

00:13:54.940 just about an entire generation,

00:13:58.080 according to Jewish measurements of time,

00:14:01.680 an entire generation where the commandment

00:14:04.380 of the Hebrew males to be circumcised on the eighth day

00:14:08.180 is utterly neglected.

00:14:10.180 do. And the biblical text does not tell us anywhere in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the

00:14:17.360 Old Testament, or in Joshua, it does not tell us an explicit command coming from God that they

00:14:25.860 should neglect circumcision. And yet I do believe that by way of necessary inference, this is the

00:14:33.880 proper interpretive conclusion that the people of God should come to. We should assume that this was

00:14:40.740 not merely radical neglect of obedience to God's commands, but although the command is not explicitly

00:14:48.160 stated in the biblical text, we should assume that there was a command given through Moses to the

00:14:55.220 people of Israel during their 40-year wandering that they were not only neglecting, but that they

00:15:03.600 were actually forbidden by God through divine command to apply the covenant sign of circumcision

00:15:11.380 to their children. And if God did give this command, which I believe he did, we know that

00:15:17.540 God does not issue his commands and his laws arbitrarily, but that he would do so for a

00:15:24.440 particular purpose. Matthew Henry, I think, is helpful at this point. He too holds to the

00:15:31.920 position that Israel did not simply neglect obedience to circumcise their children during

00:15:38.900 this 38 years of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, but rather that they were

00:15:44.480 prohibited and divinely explicitly forbidden from doing so by a command through Moses from the Lord

00:15:52.900 himself. Matthew Henry says it like this, had not God enjoined it to Abraham under a very severe

00:16:04.420 penalty that every man child of his seed should be circumcised on the eighth day in accordance

00:16:11.600 with Genesis 17, nine through 14. And yet under the government of Moses himself to have all their

00:16:20.280 children that were born for 38 years together left uncircumcised is unaccountable. So great

00:16:28.920 an omission could not be a general oversight, but only by divine direction. Therefore, it seems to

00:16:37.800 have been a continued token of God's displeasure against them for their unbelief and murmuring.

00:16:45.940 Circumcision was originally a seal of the promise of the land of Canaan.

00:16:52.120 It was in the believing hope of that good land that the patriarchs circumcised their children.

00:16:59.400 But when God had sworn in his wrath concerning the men who came out of Egypt

00:17:04.660 that they should be consumed in the wilderness and never enter Canaan,

00:17:09.360 nor come within sight of it as a further ratification of that sentence and to be a

00:17:16.940 constant memorial of it to them, all that fell under that sentence and were to fall by it were

00:17:25.060 forbidden to circumcise their children, by which they were plainly told that whatever others might,

00:17:32.520 They should never have the benefit of that promise of which circumcision was the seal.

00:17:40.580 What we find in these verses, particularly verses 4 and 5 and 6,

00:17:48.500 is that they did not circumcise their Hebrew male sons

00:17:53.160 because they were not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan.

00:17:57.900 They being the original generation of Israelites who came out of Egypt.

00:18:04.260 Let me read those verses once more so that they're fresh in our minds.

00:18:08.220 This is Joshua 5, verses 4, 5, and 6.

00:18:12.840 The Bible says this,

00:18:15.140 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

00:18:18.940 All the males of the people who came out of Egypt,

00:18:22.120 all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.

00:18:29.180 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, that first generation,

00:18:34.960 yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt

00:18:40.280 had not been circumcised. For the people of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until

00:18:47.180 all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey.

00:18:54.660 This is key. They did not obey the voice of the Lord. The Lord swore to them that he would not

00:19:01.720 let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with

00:19:09.060 milk and honey. So why was this new second generation of Israel that was born along the way

00:19:18.180 during this 40 year period of wandering in the wilderness? Why were they not circumcised? Because

00:19:24.740 of God's displeasure towards them? Ironically, what I want you to catch is this. It was actually

00:19:31.580 because of God's displeasure with their parents.

00:19:35.280 It was God's just wrath

00:19:38.680 towards the first generation of Israel,

00:19:41.880 those who had been captives and slaves in Egypt,

00:19:44.760 who had come out of Egypt.

00:19:46.280 It was God's displeasure with them,

00:19:49.460 the parents' generation,

00:19:51.400 that caused him to forbid them

00:19:53.260 from applying the sign and seal of circumcision

00:19:56.680 to their children.

00:19:58.780 So it was not this second generation

00:20:01.060 that would include individuals like Joshua and Caleb

00:20:04.360 who were permitted to enter into the land.

00:20:08.040 It was not God's displeasure with them,

00:20:10.360 but rather, again, God's displeasure with their parents.

00:20:15.220 The absence of the sign on the children

00:20:18.040 was an indictment of judgment on the parents.

00:20:22.540 I'll say that again.

00:20:24.200 The absence of this covenantal sign of circumcision

00:20:27.920 on the children who are now entering into the land of Canaan. The promised land was not an

00:20:35.240 indictment of them, but rather an indictment of God's judgment on the parents. This covenantal

00:20:43.180 sign directly correlates with the promised land. That's what verses four, five, and six of our text

00:20:51.080 say, that's also what Matthew Henry, a Puritan, says, that the sign of circumcision was likened to

00:20:58.880 the promise of the land of Canaan. And because this first generation of Israelites that were led

00:21:05.960 out of captive from Egypt, because they hardened their hearts, because they persisted in grumbling,

00:21:13.980 complaining, and unbelief, because God gave them an opportunity to go and seize the land,

00:21:20.580 but rather they chose to distrust in the Lord,

00:21:24.040 to distrust his promises and to cower in fear.

00:21:27.660 For all those reasons, God swore in his wrath

00:21:31.140 that Israel would still indeed inherit the good land,

00:21:35.060 but that this particular generation of Israelites

00:21:37.780 would die off in the wilderness,

00:21:39.960 that they would not enter the land,

00:21:41.800 nor would they even come within sight of it.

00:21:45.340 And as a further ratification of God's judgment,

00:21:49.000 that they would not come into the land nor see the land

00:21:53.280 as a confirmation of God's judgment.

00:21:57.020 He would not allow this generation

00:21:59.280 that was rebellious towards him

00:22:02.360 to apply the covenant sign

00:22:04.760 that was correlated to entering the land,

00:22:08.120 namely the sign of circumcision to their own children.

00:22:11.920 The children were eventually circumcised.

00:22:14.680 That's precisely what happens in our text today.

00:22:17.340 In Joshua chapter 5, the moment after they cross over the Jordan River,

00:22:23.140 the moment that they set foot into the promised land,

00:22:26.660 the very moment that God's promise of giving to Israel a good land

00:22:31.280 flowing with milk and honey is fulfilled.

00:22:34.100 The moment the promise is fulfilled, these children are now circumcised.

00:22:39.660 They're circumcised later.

00:22:42.060 It's not the eighth day since birth.

00:22:44.280 They're circumcised in their 20s, 30s, 40s.

00:22:49.380 They're circumcised later, but they are eventually given the covenant sign.

00:22:54.140 And more importantly, even than that,

00:22:56.640 they are given the particular promise that that sign pointed towards, namely the land.

00:23:03.780 So it's not this generation of Israelites that are penalized.

00:23:08.160 Them not being able to bear that sign of the covenant

00:23:11.880 during the 38 years of wandering in the wilderness

00:23:15.300 was not an indictment to the children.

00:23:18.500 It was an indictment,

00:23:19.940 a confirmation of God's judgment upon the parents.

00:23:24.880 And I think that that'll preach.

00:23:28.500 I think that there are certain applications

00:23:32.080 that we can draw from this for any generation,

00:23:35.440 any culture, any nation, and any time period.

00:23:39.380 that there are times that God in his just wrath

00:23:46.040 will withhold certain covenant blessings

00:23:50.500 from a generation of children,

00:23:52.760 not because those children themselves

00:23:55.280 have rebelled against God,

00:23:58.100 but as a sign, as a ratification,

00:24:02.360 as a confirmation to their parents

00:24:05.260 that they have failed the Lord,

00:24:07.520 that they have rebelled against the Lord

00:24:10.840 and that the Lord is indeed displeased with them.

00:24:16.980 And I think that at least at some level,

00:24:19.040 that's part of what we're experiencing

00:24:21.140 in Western civilization today.

00:24:25.100 Now, for a whole biblical theology

00:24:28.380 in assessing the current situation,

00:24:32.060 the reality is that God holds each individual person

00:24:36.180 morally responsible for their sin.

00:24:40.060 So this is not to say that anyone is innocent

00:24:42.860 or that anyone is immune from moral culpability.

00:24:49.860 Younger generations who have grown up

00:24:53.200 and are now 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old,

00:24:58.260 by this point, certainly they themselves

00:25:01.460 have made many choices

00:25:04.440 either to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ or to rebel against him.

00:25:10.640 And they will be held accountable for their own choices.

00:25:14.940 They will receive rewards for obedience and just sanctions and judgments,

00:25:20.960 not only in this life, but certainly the life to come

00:25:24.320 for whatever rebellion they've participated in.

00:25:28.440 But to pretend that each individual person is making decisions either in obedience to God or rebellion against him in an isolated vacuum is a very naive perception of the world.

00:25:45.100 We don't do theology in a vacuum.

00:25:48.940 We don't do obedience or rebellion, for that matter, in a vacuum.

00:25:54.280 In other words, none of us live the Christian life in a neutral, unaffected, unbiased plane.

00:26:07.200 We are all at some degree products of time and place, generations that came before us

00:26:15.240 and the decisions that they have made.

00:26:17.660 And yet at the same time, no one in the ultimate sense is a victim.

00:26:24.280 that two things can be simultaneously true.

00:26:29.080 It is true that children are deeply affected by their parents.

00:26:35.100 And it is also true that children are also accountable under God,

00:26:42.220 that no one can stand before Christ on that final day and say,

00:26:47.480 well, I didn't have a good mom and dad, so I can't be thrown into hell.

00:26:53.000 that dog won't hunt that won't work

00:26:57.720 but it it's not that it won't work because jesus will look at the individual and say

00:27:04.380 that's not true your parents decisions had no effect on you whatsoever

00:27:11.360 therefore you're accountable that will not be his rhetoric of course the parents decisions

00:27:18.720 have a massive effect on their children,

00:27:22.540 for good or for evil.

00:27:25.580 So it is not that the children are responsible

00:27:27.880 because the parents have no shaping

00:27:31.040 and guiding influence over their lives.

00:27:34.720 And it is not also that the parents

00:27:36.900 have shaping and guiding influence,

00:27:39.360 and therefore the children are not responsible.

00:27:43.260 It's both and, not either or.

00:27:46.380 parents are responsible for their children and yet at the same time when it comes to the new

00:27:53.700 covenant and when it comes to saving faith in the lord jesus christ when it comes to eternal life

00:28:02.620 and justification god deals with his people on an individual basis under the new covenant

00:28:14.060 God deals with individuals.

00:28:16.720 A part of the problem in the evangelical church today,

00:28:19.580 and I might add particularly among Baptists,

00:28:23.080 is that we are so individualistic, atomistic,

00:28:28.040 we have no theological framework for corporate truths,

00:28:35.020 for corporate realities.

00:28:38.240 We don't think in terms of covenant.

00:28:40.540 We don't think in terms of collections.

00:28:43.960 We don't think in terms of groups.

00:28:47.820 We don't think in terms of generations.

00:28:51.140 We merely think in terms of individual people and their individual choices.

00:28:58.660 And that's the problem.

00:29:01.040 Now, because I am a Baptist, I do think in terms of individuals at least in one sense.

00:29:07.360 And that one sense, again, is in terms of the new covenant.

00:29:12.500 I believe that the new covenant is a covenant of grace,

00:29:16.280 not just one particular administration of a larger banner of the covenant of grace,

00:29:22.880 but that the new covenant is synonymous with the covenant of grace.

00:29:26.800 It is the covenant of grace, and it is therefore the only eternally saving covenant,

00:29:32.180 and that that particular covenant is established with individual people.

00:29:39.040 Put that aside for a moment.

00:29:42.660 All the rest of my thinking is covenantal.

00:29:46.340 All the rest of my thinking, my theological thinking,

00:29:50.520 political thinking, cultural thinking, is corporate.

00:29:55.660 And I think that the problem, if I might be so bold to say,

00:29:59.740 with my Presbyterian brothers and sisters

00:30:02.600 is that they attempt to stretch the New Covenant

00:30:06.520 to encompass every single scenario

00:30:09.760 that we could possibly think of.

00:30:12.920 Christian nationalism,

00:30:14.140 let me just stretch that New Covenant.

00:30:17.480 A Meochrysidim, let's stretch it a little bit further.

00:30:21.580 Now the problem with Baptists

00:30:23.460 is that Baptists pretend as though

00:30:26.640 they won't stretch the New Covenant,

00:30:28.220 They're very committed to the new covenant being only what it's meant to be.

00:30:34.340 And I agree in that sense.

00:30:36.400 But I disagree with my Baptist brothers in the sense that although I think they have the proper view of the new covenant,

00:30:43.580 the problem is that they pretend that that's the only covenant that currently exists.

00:30:49.460 They think that there's a new covenant that has been established by Christ,

00:30:55.940 with Christ appointed by God as the federal head,

00:30:59.760 the representative, the head of this covenant.

00:31:03.160 And it's with individuals and the only access,

00:31:07.680 the entrance, the door into this new covenant

00:31:10.640 is union with Christ, which comes by the power of the spirit,

00:31:14.980 by grace alone, through faith alone, in him alone.

00:31:18.060 And to all that, I would say a hearty yes and amen.

00:31:21.520 But then the Baptist stops.

00:31:23.920 And if you talk about a nation being in covenant with God,

00:31:27.040 the Baptist says, uh-uh, no such thing as a Christian nation.

00:31:33.020 No such thing as a Christian seminary.

00:31:35.700 No such thing as a Christian school.

00:31:38.480 No such thing as Christian art or Christian science.

00:31:42.320 In fact, there's not even such a thing as a Christian family.

00:31:46.340 Not so long as you have young children, especially infants.

00:31:50.000 you can only be a Christian family

00:31:52.320 if your children are grown up

00:31:54.000 and each of them have made

00:31:55.060 a credible profession of faith.

00:31:58.620 Now to that I would say

00:31:59.620 that Baptists are stupid.

00:32:02.800 That is foolish.

00:32:05.500 Absolute insanity.

00:32:10.360 Baptists are foolish.

00:32:14.340 So I don't think that we need

00:32:16.020 to use the new covenant

00:32:17.700 and rearrange its theological parameters and definitions

00:32:22.600 in order to account for a Christian family

00:32:26.040 or a Christian school or a Christian culture

00:32:29.540 or a Christian nation.

00:32:32.140 I think that we can simply speak of other covenants.

00:32:37.520 And here's the one example that I would provide.

00:32:40.720 And I think all I need is one in order to make my case.

00:32:45.100 There's the covenant of works

00:32:46.540 and the covenant of grace.

00:32:48.900 The covenant of works was established by God

00:32:51.620 with Adam as the federal head.

00:32:54.500 To Adam in the garden was given not one,

00:32:58.060 but 11 commandments, 10 moral commandments,

00:33:02.620 the Decalogue written not yet on tablets of stone

00:33:05.780 as it was through Moses on Mount Sinai,

00:33:08.560 but at this point, the 10 commandments

00:33:11.160 written on Adam's heart.

00:33:13.500 In addition to the 10 moral commands

00:33:15.860 written on the heart of Adam and Eve, for that matter, in the garden. In addition, one positive

00:33:22.540 precept, that is not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is

00:33:29.500 the covenant of works that God established with Adam. I believe within covenant theological

00:33:36.480 framework that this was a probationary period of time, that this would not be the parameters

00:33:43.560 of the covenant with Adam and God forever,

00:33:47.660 indefinitely,

00:33:48.620 but that it was a temporary moment,

00:33:51.720 a probationary period,

00:33:53.800 and that at a certain point,

00:33:55.360 if Adam had succeeded

00:33:56.900 in not breaking the covenant

00:33:59.480 by breaking these commandments,

00:34:02.040 then eventually God would have held out to Adam

00:34:04.820 and by proxy Eve and all their posterity

00:34:08.620 the fruit not of the tree

00:34:10.700 of the knowledge of good and evil,

00:34:12.100 but rather the fruit of the tree of life.

00:34:14.860 And that by eating of the fruit of the tree of life,

00:34:18.660 not only would Adam and Eve be given forever life,

00:34:22.500 which they technically already had,

00:34:25.140 but they would be given eternal life.

00:34:27.920 The distinction between what I'm calling forever life

00:34:31.140 and eternal life is this.

00:34:33.500 Forever life is that you can go on living and never die.

00:34:38.500 Eternal life adds to forever life.

00:34:42.100 going on forever and never dying,

00:34:44.000 but it adds to it a sense of immutability.

00:34:48.120 Immutability, to be immutable,

00:34:51.880 is to be unchanging, unchangeable.

00:34:55.740 See, Adam was created in a state of integrity.

00:34:59.460 He was created without sin.

00:35:02.020 Adam did not have a sin nature,

00:35:03.680 not until he rebelled against God.

00:35:06.120 Now, what did God tell Adam?

00:35:07.580 He said, if you eat of the fruit of the tree

00:35:10.240 of the knowledge of good and evil

00:35:11.760 on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.

00:35:15.780 So technically, what did Adam need to do

00:35:18.420 to ensure that he would live forever?

00:35:20.940 Did he need to eat of the tree of life to live forever?

00:35:24.960 Or did he merely need to not eat

00:35:27.580 of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

00:35:31.180 I would argue that it's the latter.

00:35:33.220 If he simply did not eat of the one tree that was forbidden,

00:35:37.740 he would have gone on living forever.

00:35:40.340 But yet, in this state of integrity, with forever life,

00:35:44.860 simply by abstaining from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

00:35:49.700 one possibility would yet remain.

00:35:52.640 And the possibility is that at any moment, he could fall.

00:35:58.040 At any moment, he could stop making the right choice

00:36:01.840 to abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

00:36:05.100 At any moment, he could disobey, the covenant would be broken, and on that day, he would surely die.

00:36:15.320 Eating of the tree of life did more than merely abstaining from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

00:36:24.780 I'll say that again.

00:36:26.000 To eat of the tree of life was greater.

00:36:30.500 It would produce a greater reality.

00:36:33.840 to eat of the tree of life would be better than merely abstaining from eating of the tree of the

00:36:40.400 knowledge of good and evil. And so again, I, along with many other covenant theologians,

00:36:46.500 both on the Presbyterian, Westminster, and the 1689 Baptist side of the aisle, I hold that it

00:36:53.540 was a probationary period. Covenant works established with Adam as a federal head in the

00:36:59.760 garden not indefinitely but for a time it could have been a month could have been a week could

00:37:06.920 have been 10 years we don't know how long the time period was but i believe that

00:37:11.780 i believe that the implication from genesis 1 and 2 and 3 is that god established this covenant and

00:37:21.580 there was an end date and at the end not only would adam have to go on not eating of the tree

00:37:28.120 of the knowledge of good and evil.

00:37:29.500 But by the end of this period,

00:37:32.000 Adam would be given access to eat of the tree of life.

00:37:35.720 And the tree of life, it wouldn't just give him forever life,

00:37:38.480 but it would make the forever life he already had

00:37:41.320 by just not eating of the bad tree,

00:37:43.300 it would make that forever life secure.

00:37:46.920 Now, when we speak of salvation, justification for the Christian,

00:37:51.760 for you and I today, we hold to the security of the believer.

00:37:57.100 It's not just that you and I, through faith in Jesus,

00:38:00.600 have been granted forever life,

00:38:02.360 but that we have, in a present sense, eternal life.

00:38:08.320 And what makes the difference between forever and eternal life

00:38:13.620 is that for the Christian, that eternal life can never be lost.

00:38:18.940 And the same way that you did nothing to gain it,

00:38:23.000 you can do nothing to lose it.

00:38:26.280 I've heard it said, well, we don't do anything.

00:38:29.900 We don't earn by our works or our good behavior, justification, salvation.

00:38:36.840 And so because we don't do anything to earn eternal life,

00:38:40.220 we can't do anything to lose it.

00:38:42.140 However, we do gain eternal life, not by what we do, but what we choose.

00:38:48.360 And so if by choice we gain it, then by choice we could lose it.

00:38:53.740 to which I would respond, I have very good news.

00:38:58.560 Not only did you not do anything to gain salvation,

00:39:01.860 you also didn't choose it.

00:39:05.780 That's the beauty of Calvinism.

00:39:09.320 We love because he first loved us.

00:39:12.920 We did not choose God, but rather he chose us.

00:39:17.240 Romans chapter 3 is God's anthropology,

00:39:20.900 God's view of man apart from saving grace in Christ.

00:39:25.120 And what it says is not just that all people are bad,

00:39:28.300 that their throats are open graves,

00:39:31.080 that there is no fear of God before their eyes,

00:39:34.620 but Romans 3 goes further and says,

00:39:37.500 no one seeks for God.

00:39:41.660 Not just that no one obeys God or that no one fears God

00:39:45.340 or that no one loves God,

00:39:46.800 but that no one left to themselves will even seek for God.

00:39:52.700 The same principle is confirmed in John chapter 3,

00:39:56.320 the discourse between Christ and Nicodemus.

00:40:00.080 Jesus says to Nicodemus,

00:40:02.100 unless a man first be born again,

00:40:05.700 not only can he not enter the kingdom of heaven,

00:40:08.400 but he cannot even see the kingdom.

00:40:12.480 He cannot even see the kingdom of heaven.

00:40:16.120 Some at this point might object by saying,

00:40:18.900 what about Matthew?

00:40:20.440 What about what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount?

00:40:24.240 Ask, and it will be given.

00:40:26.660 Knock, the door will be opened to you.

00:40:29.980 Seek, and you will find.

00:40:33.400 Which, of course, the answer is that God is schizophrenic

00:40:36.020 and contradicts himself at every turn.

00:40:38.440 No.

00:40:38.760 perhaps an alternative solution

00:40:43.800 to reconciling Romans 3

00:40:45.540 that literally says no one seeks for God

00:40:47.720 and what Jesus says

00:40:49.960 in his discourse

00:40:51.580 in the Sermon on the Mount

00:40:53.440 when he explicitly

00:40:55.700 tells people

00:40:56.900 seek and you will find

00:40:59.220 perhaps these two things

00:41:01.380 can actually be reconciled

00:41:03.460 see there is a sense

00:41:05.420 in which we do seek for God

00:41:07.600 But we only seek after God after having first been found by God.

00:41:15.880 It is actually only the Christian, the one who has first been born again,

00:41:22.800 not by the will of man or the work of man, not by blood,

00:41:30.720 but the one who has been born again by grace,

00:41:33.780 a sovereign move and work of the Holy Spirit,

00:41:37.000 the one who has had his heart of stone removed

00:41:40.400 and a heart of flesh that is malleable and receptive to God and his promises replaced,

00:41:47.220 it is only that individual who has first been made a new creature in Christ Jesus,

00:41:52.760 only to them and them alone will they seek after God.

00:41:58.860 And as they seek after God, they will progressively find more and more of what they seek,

00:42:05.120 more and more of his goodness,

00:42:08.540 more and more sanctification,

00:42:12.020 more and more intimacy and communion

00:42:15.460 with the triune God by grace through faith.

00:42:22.500 So all of this being said,

00:42:24.580 back to the covenant of works established with Adam,

00:42:28.340 a probationary period, he failed.

00:42:31.800 He failed.

00:42:32.440 there are some that i actually would agree with in terms of when did he fail

00:42:38.240 there are a few theologians who say that the reason why hebrew boys under the old covenant

00:42:45.380 had to be circumcised on the eighth day was because adam fell on the eighth day

00:42:52.200 so it's not that god had a 10 year long probationary period and adam made it for

00:42:59.460 nine and a half years, but couldn't quite get over the finish line. But according to this view,

00:43:05.600 which I think is most probable, Adam was made on the sixth day, enjoyed God on the seventh,

00:43:13.180 and fell on the eighth. And he didn't get very far. Not very far at all. And the covenant was

00:43:21.680 broken. And on that day, Adam did die. He spiritually died, and that began a ticking clock in terms of his

00:43:31.280 physical death. In terms of his physical death. So Baptists and Presbyterians alike, all within the

00:43:40.020 Reformed tradition, Protestant tradition, we hold and esteem the covenant of works and the covenant

00:43:49.340 of grace. A different articulation of what exactly the covenant of grace entails, when

00:43:57.900 precisely it begins. But we all hold to these two covenants at least. Covenant of works,

00:44:07.560 covenant of grace. But again, the problem today is that many Christians, especially

00:44:15.160 Baptist, but beyond just the Baptist, many Christians pretend as though there are no

00:44:20.520 other covenants besides these. And that in this New Testament time, this gospel age or church age

00:44:29.380 where we now live, that the new covenant is the only covenant that matters. And some, at least

00:44:37.120 implicitly they seem to suggest that it's the only covenant that even exists so again i said

00:44:45.800 earlier i'll provide it now all i need is one covenant as an example outside of the new covenant

00:44:52.680 and the covenant of works that i've just espoused in order to break the mold and say hey they there

00:44:59.100 are in fact other covenants outside of these two one covenant that i would provide as an

00:45:06.880 example, would be marriage. Is marriage a contract or is it a covenant? I'm talking about human

00:45:16.820 marriage between one biological man, aka one man, shouldn't even have to say biological,

00:45:26.080 and one woman.

00:45:29.500 This is not merely an arrangement,

00:45:32.900 a civil arrangement,

00:45:36.360 a business contract,

00:45:39.280 but according to Scripture, it is a covenant.

00:45:43.960 My next question would be this,

00:45:46.540 that in the case of two Christians who are married,

00:45:51.440 in this marriage covenant,

00:45:54.100 should it be viewed as a Christian covenant?

00:45:59.880 Do you have a Christian marriage?

00:46:02.780 Or is it a neutral covenant?

00:46:06.300 Is it a neutral marriage

00:46:08.320 in which you simply seek to live out

00:46:12.720 Christian faithfulness

00:46:14.320 but in a non-Christian marriage?

00:46:19.160 I would say that those are categories

00:46:24.240 that seem to have to be forced in

00:46:28.360 through the biblical narrative.

00:46:31.300 They seem foreign within the realm of Scripture.

00:46:36.480 If you are a Christian and you're married,

00:46:40.480 you have a Christian marriage.

00:46:42.520 In fact, I'll see your point and raise you one further.

00:46:47.140 However, according to the Apostle Paul, you don't even need two Christians in the marriage to make it a Christian marriage.

00:46:56.300 That just one will suffice.

00:46:59.200 In fact, even further, according to the Apostle Paul, who I might add was a big fan of patriarchy,

00:47:07.780 you could actually have even the woman who is not actually head of the marriage being a Christian and her husband not being a Christian.

00:47:16.320 and it would still be a Christian marriage.

00:47:19.980 So much so that the fruit of the marriage,

00:47:22.960 namely children, would be holy.

00:47:27.120 And for the record,

00:47:28.360 in terms of what it means for children to be holy,

00:47:30.960 I do not believe,

00:47:32.920 I'll at least tell you what I don't believe.

00:47:35.160 I don't believe that what the Apostle Paul is saying

00:47:37.840 is that the children are holy

00:47:39.520 in the sense that the children are legitimate.

00:47:43.220 There are some who their position

00:47:45.940 is that Paul is merely saying that

00:47:49.940 that if you have a marriage

00:47:52.920 with at least one Christian spouse,

00:47:55.780 that this makes the marriage legitimate

00:47:57.980 and therefore the children are legitimate.

00:48:01.360 Well, that can't be what the Apostle Paul is saying

00:48:04.020 because if it is,

00:48:05.600 then in any marriage that has zero Christians,

00:48:09.120 like a marriage between two atheists

00:48:10.920 or a marriage between two Muslims,

00:48:12.860 still in terms of biblical marriage,

00:48:14.680 a man and a woman,

00:48:15.940 you would have to say that the children of those marriages are bastards.

00:48:20.960 And I don't believe that that's true.

00:48:23.920 That even children born into a marriage between two Muslims

00:48:27.840 are still legitimate children,

00:48:30.180 and that marriage between two Muslims, man and wife,

00:48:34.500 is a legitimate marriage.

00:48:36.080 A Christian marriage? No.

00:48:38.620 But a legitimate marriage.

00:48:40.760 Because marriage is given as an institution by God,

00:48:44.040 not just to Christian people, but to all people.

00:48:49.320 And so what Paul must mean

00:48:51.500 in terms of the children being holy

00:48:53.980 is not just that the children are legitimate

00:48:56.120 because a marriage between two people

00:48:58.740 with at least one of them being a Christian

00:49:00.800 makes the marriage legitimate

00:49:02.200 and therefore their offspring are legitimate as well.

00:49:06.300 Now, I don't believe that's what he's saying.

00:49:08.500 Holy, I'll at least leave you with this to ponder,

00:49:11.500 holy must mean more than that.

00:49:14.040 the children being holy,

00:49:16.560 if that's what he means, legitimate children,

00:49:18.940 then he should have said

00:49:20.160 that the husband can be an unbeliever

00:49:23.160 and the wife can be an unbeliever.

00:49:25.480 But so long as it's a man and a woman

00:49:27.940 joined in marriage, the children are holy.

00:49:31.140 If holy merely means legitimate.

00:49:35.380 But the apostle says,

00:49:37.240 no, there has to at least be one of them

00:49:39.600 that's redeemed.

00:49:40.720 And if one of them is redeemed,

00:49:42.920 that one redeemed spouse is enough to, in a sense, redeem the other so that their offspring

00:49:49.680 and the fruit of that marriage would be redeemed, using redeemed in quotation marks now, but

00:49:56.380 redeemed, holy offspring, sanctified offspring. So all this being said, marriage would be an

00:50:06.800 example, not of a contract, not of a mere civil arrangement, but a covenant, and it is not the

00:50:14.700 covenant of works, and it is not the new covenant either. So there are such a thing as covenants

00:50:25.220 outside of those two. So when we think in terms of nations being Christian,

00:50:32.760 we can use covenant theology to encompass that paradigm and certainly beyond just covenant

00:50:43.480 theology we can use the notion of kingdom the net that's thrown in matthew 13 and the

00:50:52.380 implication is that it is cast and recast and recast until it brings in a haul of a great

00:50:58.560 many fish some good and some bad and it is the net of the church no it is the net of the kingdom

00:51:08.920 so our kingdom theology certainly should be able to encompass everything including whole nations

00:51:18.020 and i believe even beyond kingdom working a little bit narrower covenant should be able to encompass

00:51:26.660 nations as well. Not new covenant, not the covenant of works, but still a covenant and

00:51:35.780 still a Christian covenant. Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh. That's not just

00:51:46.960 speaking of Israel. That is speaking of any nation that makes the triune God their God.

00:51:55.880 That nation will be blessed. There is a way of not just individuals being justified, which comes

00:52:05.320 by grace alone, but corporate entities, even nations, not being justified in the eternal

00:52:14.320 salvific sense, but still being Christianized through covenant by explicitly esteeming and

00:52:22.880 pledging their allegiance to the triune God.

00:52:31.760 We've lost that in our nation.

00:52:35.780 We've utterly rejected that.

00:52:38.580 And there's a host of reasons why.

00:52:40.380 there's a host of reasons why we have turned our back against the notion of being a nation that

00:52:48.320 fears the lord but i believe that at least one not necessarily the exclusive reason not even

00:52:56.960 necessarily the chief reason but one reason why we've turned our back on the notion of being a

00:53:04.300 Christian nation is because we don't think in categories that are corporate any longer.

00:53:12.140 We have become incapable in a theological sense of thinking covenantally. And for that, I do blame

00:53:20.580 the Baptist. Joshua chapter 5 verse 9 says this, and the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled

00:53:29.800 away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

00:53:39.480 In your notes, I've written this. Israel's safe arrival to Canaan rolled away the reproach of

00:53:45.600 Egypt. Now, what does that mean? As I was investigating different biblical commentaries

00:53:51.740 in preparation for our text today,

00:53:54.960 some said that the reproach of Egypt

00:53:57.720 was the stench or stain of idolatry.

00:54:03.620 And that what God essentially

00:54:05.220 and effectively accomplished

00:54:07.740 through this second circumcision

00:54:10.220 of this new generation of Israelites

00:54:12.940 who had just recently crossed the Jordan

00:54:15.240 and entered into the promised land

00:54:17.160 by this renewal of the covenant ceremony,

00:54:21.140 by the cutting away of flesh,

00:54:24.500 by ratification of the covenant

00:54:27.020 through circumcision,

00:54:28.520 which includes blood,

00:54:30.940 had God washed them,

00:54:33.960 cleansed them from the reproach,

00:54:36.800 in this sense being a stain of idolatry.

00:54:40.760 And I think there's a sense

00:54:42.300 in which that explanation,

00:54:44.100 that interpretation is probably true.

00:54:48.060 But I think that at least in addition to it,

00:54:50.440 if not this simply being the only interpretation,

00:54:54.520 we have to understand precisely what the word reproach means.

00:55:00.440 A reproach is actually a sharp criticism.

00:55:04.920 It's a sharp criticism which conveys severe disapproval or disdain.

00:55:13.040 Israel's safe arrival to Canaan silenced the reproach of Egypt

00:55:17.540 because it completely disproved Egypt's assertion

00:55:21.660 that God merely intended to destroy his people

00:55:25.260 in the wilderness.

00:55:27.800 To understand what it means for God

00:55:29.600 to remove the reproach of Egypt,

00:55:31.620 first we have to understand

00:55:32.840 what was the reproach of Egypt?

00:55:35.640 The reproach of Egypt, I believe in view here

00:55:38.500 in verse nine of our text is this.

00:55:40.680 Egypt said, God performed all these signs and wonders,

00:55:44.860 all ten plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea, only that he might lead Israel into the wilderness

00:55:52.060 to put them to death. That was Egypt's reproach. Again, remember, the word reproach meaning

00:55:59.760 a harsh criticism of disapproval and disdain. It's a narrative, an unflattering narrative

00:56:09.620 of condemnation. Israel was condemned by Egypt. Egypt said, okay, so it turns out your God exists.

00:56:19.840 Ten plagues? You know, it's somewhat convincing. It's hard for us to argue anymore that Israel's

00:56:26.840 God doesn't exist or that your God has abandoned you. Your God is real and your God is here,

00:56:32.120 but he's only here to judge you.

00:56:37.220 See, Egypt's assessment of God and Israel

00:56:41.420 was that, okay, your God is real

00:56:43.960 and your God is present

00:56:45.640 but what your God is not is loving.

00:56:50.560 What your God is not is gracious.

00:56:54.320 What your God is not is faithful.

00:56:58.120 Your God is real.

00:56:59.520 We gotta give you that.

00:57:00.760 Your God is powerful.

00:57:02.020 We've got to give you that.

00:57:03.220 And your God is with you.

00:57:05.640 But in what way?

00:57:07.060 Your God is with you so that he can intimately, presently punish you.

00:57:17.580 And so God says through Joshua, in Joshua 5, verse 9,

00:57:23.140 Today, the reproach of Egypt has been washed away.

00:57:27.880 Meaning what?

00:57:29.280 Today, God has fulfilled his promise.

00:57:33.240 Today, God has proven that Egypt was wrong.

00:57:37.980 Egypt said that I've only delivered you

00:57:40.680 so that I might judge you in the wilderness

00:57:43.040 and put you to death.

00:57:44.320 But today, Egypt has been proven wrong.

00:57:48.300 For today, I have fulfilled my covenant promises.

00:57:52.280 Today, I have proven myself faithful to Israel,

00:57:56.480 Not just to discipline her as a father disciplines his son, but also to give to her everything I promised to give, including this good land.

00:58:11.300 That's verse 9 of our text.

00:58:13.480 The last thing that I want to look at, I've been doing this and comparing and contrasting types and antitypes, or shadows and substance.

00:58:24.220 foretelling and fulfillment throughout the book of joshua compared to the gospel and the greater

00:58:32.980 joshua who is jesus and want to do that very briefly in our text today as well i've written

00:58:40.280 the following the fact that this circumcision was performed under joshua rather than in the

00:58:46.580 wilderness by moses it points forward to the new and better circumcision of the heart that comes

00:58:54.020 by grace under the administration of Jesus and not the law under the administration of Moses.

00:59:02.380 Even this was shadow pointing to substance, type pointing to anti-type. Circumcision could have

00:59:10.820 come in the practical sense as we started out with verses 1 and 2 of our text today. In the practical

00:59:16.900 sense, they had plenty of time when Israel was not under threat with no enemies surrounding them

00:59:23.540 for 38 long years in the wilderness

00:59:26.280 where they could have been circumcised.

00:59:29.080 But one of the reasons that God waits

00:59:31.580 until they enter the promised land

00:59:33.480 is to say, we're renewing the covenant now

00:59:37.880 with a new generation now that the promise,

00:59:40.680 the sign, the promise that correlates

00:59:43.760 to the sign of circumcision has actually been fulfilled.

00:59:46.720 Circumcision is the sign and the land is the promise.

00:59:50.720 So now that this has been fulfilled

00:59:52.300 and now that we have a new generation,

00:59:54.460 I'm renewing the covenant oath with you.

00:59:56.840 That's one reason.

00:59:58.440 But in a larger gospel sense,

01:00:01.200 in pointing from Joshua to Jesus,

01:00:03.920 the other reason is because

01:00:05.720 there was a greater circumcision that was coming.

01:00:09.780 Not merely circumcision of the flesh,

01:00:12.380 but circumcision of the heart.

01:00:14.540 Not external, but internal.

01:00:17.660 Not circumcision performed as a duty under the law

01:00:21.520 given to Moses, but circumcision that comes by grace alone. That is circumcision of the heart

01:00:29.420 that Romans speaks of. Circumcision that Colossians speaks of by no human hands. A circumcision of the

01:00:39.120 heart that comes as a sovereign move of the Spirit of God by grace alone, through faith alone,

01:00:44.680 in Christ alone. And this circumcision is not performed by Moses and the law, but by Jesus

01:00:52.120 and the gospel. And so Joshua, as a type of Christ, after the time of Moses, when the promises of God

01:01:00.740 had reached their fulfillment, is now performing circumcision, pointing towards the true circumcision,

01:01:07.340 which you and I in Christ have today.

01:01:11.780 Lastly, Passover, verses 10 through 12.

01:01:16.240 And this will get us back to the longest point

01:01:18.240 that I made this morning on nations and covenants

01:01:22.480 and land that particular plane.

01:01:25.580 Let me read verse 10 so that it's fresh in our minds.

01:01:29.500 While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal,

01:01:33.020 they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month

01:01:36.420 in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

01:01:39.920 In your notes, I've written this.

01:01:41.780 Israel ate the Passover in the plains of Jericho

01:01:44.880 in defiance of the Canaanites

01:01:47.620 that were round about them and enraged against them.

01:01:52.320 It made me think this week as I was praying

01:01:54.760 and preparing of Psalm 23, verse five.

01:01:59.000 It says, you prepare a table before me

01:02:02.920 in the presence of my enemies.

01:02:05.140 you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Not only is Israel circumcised as they're now in

01:02:15.580 enemy territory, surrounded by their adversaries, not only are they circumcised, which literally

01:02:22.480 and physically causes them for at least a few days to be vulnerable to attack, but then as if

01:02:29.380 to add insult to injury, the Lord also has them partake of the Passover. So you're going to be

01:02:37.500 circumcised and virtually bedridden for a few days as you're surrounded by your enemies. And

01:02:43.180 don't worry, they won't do a thing for I am the Lord. And I've put my fear in them and caused

01:02:52.400 their hearts to melt like wax. And now that you're finally healed, go ahead and take a little bit

01:02:57.500 more time and have a feast as i prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies for i

01:03:08.700 am the lord now these two signs circumcision and passover as i've already said it is a renewal of

01:03:20.940 the covenant. We now have a new generation of Israelites. We have finally, after 40 years,

01:03:27.460 the fulfillment of God's promise to give them the land. And the first thing that takes place

01:03:33.300 is that the covenant oath is renewed. This new generation comes into covenant with God

01:03:40.400 through circumcision and renews that covenant even further with the Passover. And this is the

01:03:47.760 very same that new testament christians practice today in terms of baptism and the lord's supper

01:03:54.220 it's funny the baptists get upset with me and likening circumcision to baptism i say you can't

01:04:02.580 do that don't do that you're going to give away points joel whose team are you on i of course

01:04:10.300 it's correlated. I can't see any way that circumcision and baptism is not. The only way

01:04:17.960 that I differ from my Westminster brothers and sisters in the sense is that I would say this,

01:04:25.520 that circumcision as a natural sign followed natural birth. And baptism, which absolutely

01:04:33.200 correlates to circumcision, the only difference is that it is the new covenant sign which

01:04:40.020 follows new birth.

01:04:42.780 I am all for infant baptism.

01:04:46.760 I am dedicated to baptizing

01:04:49.160 spiritual infants.

01:04:51.300 The moment that someone is born again,

01:04:53.620 I don't want them to grow old

01:04:55.060 in spiritual maturity and sanctification

01:04:57.340 before being baptized.

01:04:59.520 Far be it.

01:05:01.640 No, while they're still in the earliest stages

01:05:04.440 of spiritual infancy,

01:05:06.800 directly after conversion,

01:05:09.720 I'll baptize them.

01:05:11.780 Because I love infant baptism.

01:05:14.020 Just want to get it right.

01:05:16.100 Okay.

01:05:17.740 Lastly, I said I would land the plane

01:05:19.640 back on this idea of covenant,

01:05:22.760 not the new covenant,

01:05:24.520 which is established through Christ

01:05:26.520 for individual people

01:05:27.780 in terms of eternal salvation

01:05:30.020 and justification.

01:05:31.260 By grace alone, through faith alone,

01:05:33.080 in Christ alone.

01:05:34.280 Not the new covenant,

01:05:35.740 and also not the old covenant.

01:05:37.700 and speaking of the covenant of works established with Adam.

01:05:43.000 And yet, I still believe that outside of the covenant of works

01:05:46.300 and outside of the covenant of grace,

01:05:48.180 there are still other covenants that we have today.

01:05:51.280 Marriage I cited simply as one example.

01:05:54.340 And for the Christian, any covenant that we're a part of

01:05:57.560 must be a Christian covenant.

01:06:02.000 So back on that point, landing the plane,

01:06:05.020 not only on that point, but the sermon as a whole,

01:06:07.260 I've written this, the circumcision of Israel and their following observance of the Passover

01:06:13.380 signify the renewal of the covenant between Israel and God. In a similar fashion, my prayer

01:06:20.380 is that in my lifetime, I might be granted the privilege of witnessing a renewal of the covenant

01:06:28.340 between America and God. This would not be the new covenant, which God reserves only for individuals

01:06:36.260 by regeneration. Neither would this be the old covenant which God uniquely established with

01:06:42.660 Israel according to the flesh under the Old Testament. And yet, to insist that nations

01:06:49.340 today cannot establish any covenant with a triune God is a foolish notion. Not only is it possible,

01:06:58.600 but I believe in the case of America, it has already been done. Therefore, the goal of every

01:07:05.720 Christian in America should not be Mac, make America Christian, but Macca, make America Christian

01:07:14.500 again. Let's pray. Father God, we do pray that if you would be so kind, that you would still

01:07:23.340 your hand of judgment by granting repentance in the hearts of people here in this nation,

01:07:30.480 we know that it is unlikely that every individual person in our nation would be regenerate and born

01:07:40.160 again but we know that it is also possible not only for you to save the poor of this world to

01:07:49.900 be rich in faith but there are times throughout biblical history and throughout church history

01:07:57.120 these last 2,000 years

01:07:58.960 where you saved not only peasants,

01:08:01.360 but princes.

01:08:03.020 Where you saved kings.

01:08:05.660 Not just guiding wicked kings

01:08:08.060 like water in the direction

01:08:09.980 that they should go,

01:08:11.260 but where you actually saved kings.

01:08:14.840 Where you actually caused

01:08:16.620 previously wicked kings

01:08:18.660 to fear you.

01:08:21.540 And Father, we pray

01:08:22.560 that you would do this today.

01:08:25.200 In the case of America,

01:08:27.120 with our constitutional republic.

01:08:29.780 It would not be a singular Christian prince,

01:08:32.360 but many Christian princes.

01:08:35.740 We pray, Lord, that you would save congressmen,

01:08:39.440 save governors,

01:08:42.160 save multiple men sitting in positions

01:08:46.900 of civil authority as civil magistrates

01:08:50.260 and cause them to fear you

01:08:52.840 and to do what is right,

01:08:54.800 to follow your law,

01:08:58.420 to uphold principles of virtue

01:09:01.900 that are not abstract

01:09:03.860 but directly come from the virtue of Christ

01:09:07.760 found on the pages of Scripture.

01:09:10.340 We pray, Lord, that America would, in fact,

01:09:13.600 renew its covenant with you.

01:09:16.920 That although there will always be individuals

01:09:19.280 who live here who are not Christian,

01:09:21.840 we do pray that as a whole

01:09:24.060 that our nation would explicitly declare once more

01:09:28.220 its allegiance to Christ.

01:09:32.340 Lord, we pray that the church would pave the way.

01:09:37.180 And Father, we pray that you would rid your church

01:09:40.300 of the foolish notion

01:09:41.740 that this would somehow be a disservice to the gospel.

01:09:47.260 That if a nation did in fact fear the Lord,

01:09:50.460 that the gospel would somehow be polluted.

01:09:52.840 or that the gospel would somehow become impotent.

01:09:57.480 There are many Christians today in America

01:10:00.980 who think that the only way we can have purity of doctrine,

01:10:05.880 purity of gospel,

01:10:08.700 and a purity of regenerate Christians

01:10:11.800 being true Christians

01:10:13.900 is in the climate and context of persecution.

01:10:18.180 part of the reason why our nation has turned from you

01:10:22.960 is because of self-fulfilling prophecy

01:10:26.300 Christians who thought the world getting worse

01:10:30.980 was precisely what was supposed to happen

01:10:34.420 and that as the world got worse politically

01:10:38.140 and culturally

01:10:39.660 that it would narrow the church

01:10:42.600 but also purify the church and make it better

01:10:45.600 And here we are.

01:10:51.060 We reject that notion.

01:10:54.280 We believe that by grace that a nation can fear you

01:10:58.680 and that Christians can be stout and mature in their faith at the same time.

01:11:07.080 The reason why Christians in our nation and in the West in general

01:11:11.260 have been watered down in their doctrine

01:11:14.860 and their character and their lives

01:11:16.580 and we have a whole crop of false converts

01:11:19.060 with false assurance

01:11:20.480 is not from faithful states

01:11:23.780 but from faithless churches.

01:11:28.160 The purity of the gospel is not lost

01:11:31.360 when a prince is faithful.

01:11:34.280 It is lost when a pastor is faithless.

01:11:37.900 the state being faithful to christ is not a threat it is churches being faithless to christ

01:11:46.660 that causes the problem lord we pray that that would be rectified by your grace that you would

01:11:54.320 raise up faithful pastors yes turn the hearts of the civil magistrates to christ but simultaneously

01:12:01.140 in your grace, turn the hearts of pastors to Christ, that they would preach serious doctrine,

01:12:10.020 serious Bible, serious gospel, so that we might see serious Christians. Not serious Christians

01:12:18.560 simply in the context of persecution, but serious Christians in a nation that is turned to you.

01:12:26.660 We pray all of this, recognizing it is a very tall order, but recognizing that you are a very

01:12:34.500 great God. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Can I be frank with you for just a second right here

01:12:40.940 at the end? Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry, and from

01:12:45.760 the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. I cannot thank you enough. However, some of you, you just

01:12:52.720 you can't afford it. In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean,

01:12:59.340 we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. Our nation and our totalitarian political elites

01:13:07.440 lost their minds over the last three years due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply

01:13:14.940 cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession. We are living

01:13:21.080 in a recession right now regardless. Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs

01:13:27.960 at the grocery store. You cannot support financially this ministry at this time,

01:13:33.800 nor should you, but you could still help us tremendously. I am asking you, please,

01:13:40.180 if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time. Leave us a five-star review on your

01:13:46.460 favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever that might be, this is the way the

01:13:52.580 system works. We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers. We need to be strategic.

01:13:59.660 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people. And the Word of God

01:14:05.700 and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of life gets out there.

01:14:13.500 Help us get it out there. Thanks for tuning in.

01:14:16.460 You

The NXR Podcast - May 28, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Baptists, Presbyterians, Covenant Theology, & Christian Nationalism

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